“Are you sure you want to go in there?” Sir Kain turned around in his seat so he could look directly at Lilith.
“Am I sure? No. But I’m gonna do it anyway.” Lilith opened the car door to what had turned into a downpour.
“Do you want me to come with?”
“No, I need you out here. Keeping a lookout for dock security, cops or whatever they have out here. Honk or something if they’re coming.”
“Of course miss...Lilith.”
To Lilith’s surprise the door to the Thorne & Chevenko Holdings warehouse was unlocked. She went inside. It was dark. Only a little bit of light from the outside came through the windows near the top of the cavernous building. But upstairs on the second floor was a lit up office.
Like a moth to flame, Lilith made her way upstairs. As she made her way to the stairs nothing about the warehouse looked out of sort...just a whole lot of boxed and packaged goods. Still she had an unshakable feeling of dread with each step.
Lilith’s dread was well founded. When she opened the door of the warehouse offices she found the same thing she found in the Cold Dawn’s hideaway, death.
I was too late. I’m always too damn late. There was a woman’s body on the other side of the office’s only two desks. Even though her features were gaunt, skin pale, Lilith recognized her. It was Det. Winter Krueger. And from what she found, someone stole her soul, one of the most foul type of spells a witch or warlock can cast on someone. Naturally it was strictly outlawed.
“I really wish you weren’t dead Winter. Never got to meet you but I sure wish I did.” Lilith’s surprise of finding a dead body was quickly replaced with her detective instincts. She went to work examining the scene.
First thing that came to Lilith’s attention was Det. Winter Krueger’s left hand. It was missing fingers. All of them in fact except the thumb. On her palm were indentation marks. Some of them broke the skin.
You were holding something, tight, didn’t want to give it up but they got it anyway didn’t they? That’s just gruesome. Lack of blood, this was done after you died.
Lilith looked around the room. Things were in a state of disarray, chair knocked over. There was a broken lamp on the floor. It was hard to miss a huge dent in the side of a filing cabinet.
“You didn’t go down quietly did you? Good for you.”
The next thing that caught Lilith’s attention were footprints. They were wet. Someone was just here. Winter's death just happened. She was maybe just minutes late.
Sir Kain came flying through the Thorne & Chevenko’s warehouse front door. It wasn’t under his own power he was thrown through it. Lilith ran over to window of the office on the second floor that looked over the ground floor.
“Lilith Blackward!” Det. Drake walked into the warehouse. With him were two thugs she’d never seen before. She figured they were either hired goons or his friends. “Come on out or your butler here dies!”
No,no,no,no, what are you gonna do Lily? Any advice older me?
“Red Wolf’s Folly,” responded OLG.
“Not a chance. Nothing good can come from that.”
“Really? Pretty sure it can save Sir Kain’s life.”
“I have no control over it. Who knows when I’ll end up.”
“You have three seconds young lady before I take his soul just like poor Det. Krueger up there!” yelled Det. Drake. As he yelled his thugs silently made their way to the stairwell that led to the office on the second floor.
“You have me. Say the words and I’ll make sure we go where we need to be.”
“Which is when exactly?”
“Trust me. Believe or not I want you to solve this case too. The way I see it , it’s one step closer to me not dying.”
“Three!”
“Okay. Guess we have no choice, we aren’t exactly skilled fighters. Here goes nothing.”
“Two!”
“Get out of here Lilith! Run!” urged Sir Kain.
“Emit fo sdnas eht ni kcab spets owt,” Lilith tried to keep her voice down as she recited the spell. It was all for not though because the boom and screech of the breach in time and space made all the windows in the office shatter.
“Stop her!” ordered Det. Drake.
“WHO ARE YOU?” ASKED Det. Winter Krueger as she sat behind the desk in the warehouse’s office.
“Me?” Lilith had just stepped through the rip in time and space. The transition was jarring.
“No, the other random girl who just appeared out of thin air right in front of me.”
“You don’t know me, my name is Lilith Blackward. We have to leave. Now!”
Winter Krueger shot up out of her chair. She backed away from Lilith. “Stay away from me! Your parents sent you, didn’t they?”
“I’m not with or my mother. I’m here about the Cold Dawn and, wait what do you mean my parents?”
Winter examined Lilith’s body language and facial expressions to try and figure out if she was lying. Apparently she was convinced enough not to pull the gun out of the desk and plug a few holes in the young detective. What the detective was really doing was hiding something in case she was wrong.
“You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what? Scratch that, tell me on the way...we’re leaving. Your buddy Det. Drake is on the way with some buddies to put an end to you.”
“That’s not... how’d he find me? Where’s Alfred?”
“Dead, like we will be soon if we don’t get out of here.” Lilith grabbed Winter by her hand. “Emit fo sdnas eht ni kcab spets owt.”
Another rip in time and space opened. And it opened just in time. Det. Drake had just picked the lock to the warehouse.
“What is that? I’ve never seen a portal like that. I’m not stepping in th-”
Lilith literally dragged then pushed Winter through the rip. Then she hopped in after her.
“NOT WANTING TO BE SEEN or heard I took a peek around the corner of the study. There was your mother, arms on and around the shoulders of Deacon Thorne. His hands were on her waist. They kissed and then kept talking, I did not know what about.” Sir Kain was happy to have his memories back but not all of them.
“Then what?” asked Lilith knowing what Sir Kain was going to tell her but she had to hear it again, for herself. “Stop!”
Lilith saw before Sir Kain did that two women appeared in the road in front of them. Thinking quick, Sir Kain swerved out of the way then came to a perilous stop, almost jumping the curb.
Sir Kain and Lilith both got out the car. They walked up to the two women in the road which were near future Lilith and Detective Winter Krueger.
“How dumb can I be?” asked Lilith as she walked up to the near future version of herself. “You did it again didn’t you? You used that damn spell?”
“No choice cupcake. Take her. Now if you excuse me I have to go save Sir Kain, my Sir Kain’s life.” Near future Lilith turned to Winter Krueger. “Tell her everything you were going to tell me. I’ll end up knowing. Or maybe I’ll be in a parallel timeline, dunno. But tell her.”
Confused Lilith led Winter Krueger back to the car alongside Sir Kain.
“Emit fo sdnas eht ni kcab spets owt,” Near Future Lilith disappeared into her present.
“So what do you have to tell me?” asked Lilith as soon as she, Sir Kain and Winter Krueger got back into the car.
“Where should I start?”
“The beginning is always the best choice,” replied Lilith who’s head was completely overloaded. At that point, she just saw another version of herself, appear in the middle of the street with the missing detective she was hired to look for. Then her future self dropped Winter Krueger off like a parent dropping their kid off for pre-school, before disappearing into a Red Wolf Folly portal that she swore she’d never use again.
“It started a couple of weeks before I graduated the coven police academy. Det. Drake approached me for what he insisted was a very important assignment that would sky rocket me from a patrol off
icer to detective.” Winter Krueger’s body still tingled from the trip through the rip in time and space. She was going to continue but paused as Sir Kain made an illegal sharp turn in the middle of the street, headed back the way they came, away from Thorne & Chevenko Holdings.
“He wanted you to infiltrate the Cold Dawn, right?” Lilith asked the question even though she knew the answer.
“He told me to find a way into their inner circle and find out exactly what they were up to. Which I did. I... it was just me. I couldn’t tell friends, family or even other cops just Drake.
“Young, naive, I agreed to all of this. Looking back on it, I’m a damn fool. I should’ve realized something was up when he insisted that I don’t report to the chief, only him. Then every little tidbit of information I gave him, any leads or suspects, the trails went cold or he squashed the idea out right.” Winter Krueger turned to the backseat driver’s side window. It started to pour.
“Sounds shady,” remarked Lilith.
“You have no idea. Then one day, as I became more and more doubtful of my assignment and if the Cold Dawn was really up to anything sinister or just a club for rich witches and warlocks, I was approached by Alfred Thorne.
“Thorne told me that he knew I was undercover. But still he wanted to share with me the cult’s real goal. Not because he wanted to convert me but because he wanted me to stop them.”
“Their real goal? Extinguishing the sun right?”
“They wanted to use a spell to not extinguish but weaken the sun. That would kill most of the mundane world, be reversed and leave a great paradise for all men and animals touched by magic.
“Alfred Thorne, rightfully thought that was a terrible, horrific, evil idea. So he offered me protection, offered to help me disappear. And in return I would follow the clues he gathered over decades on the location of the spell so that I could find and destroy it. And once I did, I was to return to the coven police and expose everyone except him, including Det. Drake. I’m guessing that’s why he was coming to kill me.” Winter Krueger looked relieved as if she had a large weight lifted off her chest.
“So you know where the spell is?” asked Sir Kain as he looked back through the rear view mirror.
“Yes and no. I had a map...it belonged to a mundane inquisitor/witch hunter from the early 1800s. His name was Jeremiah Bishop, and he found where the spell was located. Unable to destroy it without the use of magic, he hid it. He was buried with a map to its location, meant for someone to use when they figured out how to be rid of it. I found his grave two weeks ago, found the map.”
“Well, where is it? Let’s destroy it and be done with this.” Lilith was at her breaking point. So much had happened to her in the last few days, it was a miracle she was still sane.
“I left it in the warehouse.”
With that Sir Kain pulled another dangerously sharp turn back towards the warehouse.
“What are you doing? We can’t go back,” pleaded Winter Krueger.
“We have to,” pointed out Sir Kain. “If anyone else gets their hands on that spell...we cannot take that risk.”
“He’s right,” agreed Lilith. “And we can’t just assume that the other version of me will retrieve it.”
“None of us can take Drake and whomever he’s gonna bring with him to kill me.” Winter Krueger wasn’t thrilled with the idea of going back. Deep down though, she knew they had to.
“Maybe not but we can probably outsmart him.” Lilith knew that she wasn’t greatest in a fight but was more clever than most.
“There’s one more thing you should probably know Lilith.”
Now what? “What’s that?” asked Lilith.
“In my time with the Cold Dawn I found out who their leader is, who was pulling the strings. Your father, Marcus Blackward.”
After a minute or so pause Lilith insisted, “That’s not possible.”
“I’m afraid it is.”
“No, you don’t understand, my father, he’s harmless. Everyone trusts him and they just gave him a seat at the high table.”
“You’re kidding me. Damn, they did it. They really did it. The Cold Dawn is on the high table now. I know you don’t believe me and you don’t have to right now. But your father, he along with the Thornes and Essex’s have been funding the cult for hundreds of years. And he’s the one spearheading this new world they want. Now that he’s on the high table he might not even need the spell, he’ll have access to everything, more than enough magic to end the world.”
“I hope he is not after the spell,” added Sir Kain. He brought the Blackward’s car to a stop outside the dock gates.
One of the warehouses on the dock, the one belonging to Thorne & Chevenko Holdings, was engulfed in raging fires. It was so big it practically lit up the water around the docks orange and could be seen from Oakland.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Lilith.
“Where did you wanna go?” asked Winter.
“Somewhere...safe.”
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Catalog of Books
CALAMITY CORNERS COZY Witch Mystery Series
Calm Before the Witch Storm
The Witch is in the Details
Better the Witch You Know
A Witch Axe to Grind
TRIPLET WITCH SISTERS Mystery Series
Two’s Company, Three’s a Coven
Resting Witch Face
Bewitched and Bewildered
Triple Toil and Trouble
WITCH DETECTIVE SERIES
Payback’s a Witch
Come Witch or High Water
Witch Boots on the Ground
THE WITCH SISTERS OF Stillwater
Hoodoo and Just Desserts
A Shade of Murder
That Ol’ Black Magic
A Whole Lotta Witchin Goin On
The Beast Cometh
Secrets and Sorcery
THE LUCKY DILL DELI Mystery Series
A Yuletide Wallop
Haunted Homicide
The Leprechaun’s Loot
THE SINISTER CASE SERIES
Mirror, Mirror Murder Them All
A Wicked Enchantment
A Scorching Spell
THE GRUMPY CHICKEN Irish Pub Series
A Frosty Mug of Murder
Treachery on Tap
A Highball and a Low Blow
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A Whiskey Sour Wipeout
OLD SCHOOL DINER COZY Mysteries
Murder at Stake
Murder Well Done
A Side Order of Deception
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THE CURIOSITY SHOP Cozy Mysteries
The Curious Case of the Cursed Spectacles
The Curious Case of the Cursed Dice
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The Curious Case of the Cursed Looking Glass
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WITCHY WOMEN OF COVEN Grove Series
THE WITCHING ON THE Wall
A Witching Well of Magic
Witching the Night Away
Witching There’s Another Way
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Witching You Wouldn’t Go
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What the Hex Page 9